{"id":34382,"date":"2026-08-09T10:42:46","date_gmt":"2026-08-09T05:42:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34382"},"modified":"2026-08-09T10:42:46","modified_gmt":"2026-08-09T05:42:46","slug":"david-ellisons-confessional-in-the-nyt-has-paramount-skydance-wbd-merger-up-in-the-air","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=34382","title":{"rendered":"David Ellison\u2019s \u2018confessional\u2019 in the NYT has Paramount-Skydance WBD merger up in the air"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F08%2Fjojojo.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>We live in strange times. <\/p>\n<p>They\u2019re so strange that when an apolitical media mogul buys a new property and wants to provide more centrist programming \u2014 reflecting attitudes of most Americans \u2014 he feels compelled to explain himself like a sinner in a confession booth.<\/p>\n<p>David Ellison, <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/04\/media\/paramount-ceo-david-ellison-confident-about-closing-warner-bros-deal-despite-lawsuit\/\">the CEO of Paramount Skydance<\/a>, is that \u201csinner\u201d and if you read his op-ed in The New York Times this week, you can see his confessional for the apostasy of bucking conventional progressive norms in the mainstream media.<\/p>\n<p>Because of his offenses against the progressive orthodoxy that dominates news and entertainment, Ellison\u2019s bid to <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/08\/06\/media\/paramount-warner-bros-discovery-merger-gets-boost-after-uk-approval\/\">merge PSKY with Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> is now being challenged on antitrust grounds by a dozen loony Democratic US state attorneys general, led by some dude in California that no one heard of \u00aduntil now.<\/p>\n<p>Ellison makes the case in his Times op-ed that the only reasons these leftist AGs are suing is politics.<\/p>\n<p>They might lose a reliable cheerleader for their progressivism at CNN \u2014 the WBD cable news subsidiary Ellison wants to acquire \u2014 much the same way Ellison is rewriting the lefty script at the news network he currently controls, CBS.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter\">\n<div class=\"inline-module inline-module--more inline-module--columnist inline-module--more--thirds\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<h2 class=\"inline-module__heading subsection-heading subsection-heading--single-line \">\n\t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<span class=\"subsection-heading__sub\">Charles Gasparino<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">\u2018Trusted steward\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Or as Ellison astutely points out: \u201cThe issue is whether I can be trusted as a steward of Warner\u2019s CNN. There has been speculation about my politics, my loyalties, my intentions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Based on the facts, it\u2019s hard to find fault in his analysis. <\/p>\n<p>First, if you know Ellison, you also know he\u2019s not some right-wing ideologue \u2014 a point he tried to drive home in the piece. <\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re even a casual viewer of CBS, you would also know that under his leadership and through his appointment of heterodox though hardly right-wing journalist <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/16\/media\/cbs-news-boss-bari-weiss-rejiggers-management-style-following-60-minutes-bloodbath-sources\/\">Bari Weiss<\/a> to run CBS News, you would also know it\u2019s not now and never will be MAGA central.<\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t believe it, go back and read some of Weiss\u2019 pieces on the issues. <\/p>\n<p>Yes, she is staunchly pro-Israel and hates all forms of wokeism, but that puts her in line with just about everyone except these AGs, and much of the progressive media ecosystem.<\/p>\n<p>This type of centrism isn\u2019t what the likes of California AG Rob Bonta, who is leading the case, is aiming for. <\/p>\n<p>His office counters that the case \u201cresulted from clear-cut antitrust analysis\u201d and is \u201cnecessary to protect competition and consumer choice.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The federal judge in the case has already indicated the court \u201ccannot accept Defendants\u2019 argument that the transaction will produce efficiencies in the streaming market.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But keep in mind that Bonta (like the Biden-appointed judge hearing the case) is a progressive and he\u2019s looking to burnish his lefty bona fides, probably to run for governor in a state dominated by like progressives. <\/p>\n<div class=\"single__inline-module inline-module inline-module--newsletter aligncenter inline-module--nypostbusinessunit aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-newsletter\" data-source-unit=\"Inline Newsletter Module On The Money\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__inner\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__title-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"inline-module__unsubmitted-title-wrapper\">\n<h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCharlie Gasparino has his finger on the pulse of where business, politics and finance meet\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up to receive On The Money by Charlie Gasparino in your inbox every Thursday.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><h3 class=\"inline-module__title headline headline--combo-sm-md\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\t\t\t\t\t<\/h3>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>What better way to do that than cry foul over some merger, including one that won easy passage through the Trump DOJ Antitrust Division?<\/p>\n<p>As an added benefit, Bonta can point out how David Ellison\u2019s dad, Larry, the Oracle co-founder, and the president are pals. <\/p>\n<p>Maybe Trump will set the new agenda of the combined CBS-CNN?<\/p>\n<p>That argument falls apart on so many levels. <\/p>\n<p>Why would Ellison risk alienating centrist viewers \u2014 the 70% of the country that\u2019s center-left and center-right \u2014 by running Trumpian-infused agitprop? <\/p>\n<p>More centrist programming might just work in a media business that has seen audience declines over its progressive leanings for years now.<\/p>\n<p>Yet crying \u201cTrump\u201d to block this deal is not nearly as weak as Bonta\u2019s legal argument. <\/p>\n<p>He wants people to believe that the Paramount-WBD combo will somehow rule the airwaves and force viewers to pay more for stuff they have been consuming for years \u2014 increasingly through Big Tech, and thus increasingly making Big \u00adMedia rather small.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bad for consumers?<\/h2>\n<p>The lawsuit is a joke on so many levels that I haven\u2019t seen a single antitrust expert \u2014 except the politicized ones in the AGs\u2019 offices \u2014 explain how these companies are about to smash the likes of Amazon, Apple, YouTube and all the other places offering content these days.<\/p>\n<p>Maybe that\u2019s because these AGs are trying to make the case that the deal is bad for consumers because two pretty weak companies merged are stronger than if they remained on their own. <\/p>\n<p>True, they will be stronger, which is the point. <\/p>\n<p>Each reported earnings last week, with WBD missing on revenues and Paramount\u2019s profits sinking.<\/p>\n<p>Dive deeper into their balance sheets and you see two companies withering from competition, not cutting prices, not hiring more stagehands, but in a long-term death spiral. <\/p>\n<p>Combine them and they have a chance to compete on price with streaming giant Netflix. <\/p>\n<p>They might be able to make a run at Big Tech for consumer eyeballs going to Amazon and the like.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s most absurd about this case is that if you take it on face value, there are actually US politicians with a degree of power who are to the left of the progressives in the European Union and the UK regulatory apparatus. <\/p>\n<p>Both have now greenlit the $80 billion merger for the obvious reasons: Arguing antitrust power when you combine two weak companies displays real economic illiteracy.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m going to give Bonta and his wingmate in this action, our very own New York AG Tish James, their due: This lawsuit isn\u2019t about protecting consumers or the jobs of the creative community that are going away because of the industry\u2019s wonky economics. <\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s a politically savvy way of stopping David Ellison from bringing news to the center and exposing Americans to points of view on both sides, as opposed to tilting to the left, which has been a significant part of CBS and CNN\u2019s faltering business model for years.<\/p>\n<p>Who knew that was such a crime?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>We live in strange times. They\u2019re so strange that when an apolitical media mogul buys a new property and wants to provide more centrist programming \u2014 reflecting attitudes of most Americans \u2014 he feels compelled to explain himself like a sinner in a confession booth. David Ellison, the CEO of Paramount Skydance, is that \u201csinner\u201d&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34383,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/08\/jojojo.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34382","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}